Want to spend 'A Night at the Rock Opera'?

Thursday

Oct 25, 2007 at 12:01 AMOct 25, 2007 at 9:30 PM

If you’re one of the people who loves the live performance of “A Night at the Rock Opera” — and the sold-out shows suggest there are lots of you out there — then you can thank Andrew Lloyd Webber: He had absolutely nothing to do with it. Part rock concert and part mini-rock opera, “A Night at the Rock Opera” is performed by the 25-member Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra.

Francis Ma

If you’re one of the people who loves the live performance of “A Night at the Rock Opera” — and the sold-out shows suggest there are lots of you out there — then you can thank Andrew Lloyd Webber: He had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Part rock concert and part mini-rock opera, “A Night at the Rock Opera” is performed by the 25-member Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra.

The rotating lead singers tackle songs by the Who, the Beatles, Queen and David Bowie, performing them with the same exuberance people feel when they hear the same songs from a jukebox in a bar.

The entire experience is the brainchild of Sal Clemente and Alan Ware, two friends who wanted to contemporize “Jesus Christ Superstar” and ended up with an epic show of rock music.

“Ironically, changing the format to do these pieces by bands like Queen, opened this show to a wider audience,” laughs Clemente. “What separates us from the robes and sandals [of ‘Superstar’] is that we rock. And that doesn’t.”

It’s easy for him to laugh now. His show has been a success. “A Night at the Rock Opera” played to sold-out crowds in Arlington earlier this year and has now graduated to the Boston’s Theater District for a 10-day run at Wilbur Theatre, Oct. 28-Nov.18.

“We play a lot of songs that everyone knows,” says Clemente. “But no one ever hears these songs live and experience it as a concert. And when the audience hears it like that, it’s euphoric.”

The set list includes the Who’s “Won’t get Fooled Again,” David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and 11 Beatles songs. Clemente says one of the biggest moments in the show is when the performers break into Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

There are also two songs from “Jesus Christ Superstar,” remnants of Clemente’s and Ware’s original idea.

Back in 1999, the two friends envisioned staging a live performance of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” the 1970-double album about the final days of Jesus Christ written by Webber and Alan Rice.

The album is a sprawling, musical odyssey that combines elements of rock, classical and pop music and is set in the final days of Jesus Christ. Though still popular among music fans, the album’s sound is definitely grounded in the ’70s, making a contemporized version an interesting musical experiment.

“We didn’t want to reinterpret it,” explains Clemente. “I was never into the show aspect of ‘Superstar.’ I was in the show and played one of the parts. That experience ruined the album for me for a long time.”

Finally in 2004, after years of casting and rehearsing, they were ready to take the stage. But a month before their scheduled performance (and after a write-up in the Boston Globe), they encountered a problem.

“We were going to shoot the performance for a documentary,” says Clemente. “But we needed permission [from Webber and Rice] if we were going to sync up the music in the film.”

In other words, they could perform it live, but not record it, which means they couldn’t show clips of the show in the Internet or in television commercials, making it virtually impossible to market. So while they waited for permission, they reworked the show.

“When you’re dealing with the music industry, you have to get yourself ready for hits in the groin area,” says Clemente. “We wrote five original songs and added songs we thought should be in a rock opera.”

One of those original songs was “Will We Rock You?” which was videotaped (with a sold-out audience singing along) and sent to Webber in the hopes that it would convince him to grant his permission. Clemente got the idea when he saw a similar video that was made by actor Jack Black for the movie “School of Rock.” He pleaded with Led Zeppelin (“the lords of rock”) to use their “Immigrant Song” in the movie and it worked.

“We sent that out in September of 2004,” says Clemente. “A couple of weeks later, we got an answer from Tim, who said yes. All we needed was the OK from Webber.”

But it would take about a year for Webber to reply and, when he finally did, it was an emphatic “no.” This led to writing a new song, “Andrew Lloyd Webber Said No,” and cemented Webber as the villain in Clemente’s and Ware’s show. To this day, Clemente isn’t sure if Webber knows he’s a villain in the production.

“I can’t wait till he finds out,” says Clemente. “Somewhere in his black, dark heart, he must know that he’s loathed by many a rock-and-roll performer.”